Protest against repeated fire incidents at Margalla Hills

islamabad - Members of civil society on Saturday staged a protest to raise voice against the repeated fire incidents and severe violation of the national park guidelines in the Margalla Hills National Park. The protestors chanted against the city management and the Mayor who remained ignorant of all such environmental disasters in the federal capital. They chanted slogans like: “Wake up mayor, save Margallah hills”

Speaking on the occasion, environmentalist and Devcom-Pakistan Director Munir Ahmed said the increasing deterioration of Margalla Hills National Park is the constitutional violation which is being committed by the mafias in connivance with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Metropolitan Corporation of Islamabad (MCI). He said that the Supreme Court of Pakistan should take a suo motu action against the extreme depletion of biodiversity and natural resource in the federal capital. He said a recently conducted study has shown the over 90 per cent depletion of natural resource in three decades while the water availability has gone down 400 per cent.

He said the city is still waiting for justice to be done in the murder case of a security guard who sacrificed his life in protecting trees in the Margalla Hills.

He urged the federal government to pull the strings of so-called political representatives of the capital and provide necessary resources to the Islamabad Wildlife Board, including heli-bowsers and other equipment for handling the forest-fire incidents in the Margallas. Munir said the city managers shall wake up before the citizens are compelled to surround and seize the city management offices.